Dr. Kon reveals when state of emergency will be lifted in Serbia: Coronavirus is seriously weakening

Dr. Predrag Kon; Photo: Tanjug/Dragan Kujundzic

Epidemiologist Predrag Kon, a member of the Government's Crisis HQ, told RTS this morning that a state of emergency is one of the measures that will be lifted first, but that it is realistic to see it happen only after all the holidays have passed. He pointed out that coronavirus is seriously weakening.

Recommended

"A state of emergency is something that will be removed first, but we also have certain (upcoming) holidays and times when we gather. It is realistic to remove the state of emergency afterwards, less likely before that. And within the epidemic, there are measures such as a ban on assembly, shutting down schools. Therefore, this will be lifted gradually," said Dr. Kon.

He stressed that the virus has weakened.

"We can see such behavior because we are increasingly discovering mild cases even when they are symptomatic, as it appeared in social institutions. That means the virus is highly circulating but causes a very mild, or no disease," he said.

As for this seventh week, he said that it could only happen that the virus enters some collectives - social or health ones.

"They are mostly closed. Therefore, we have nowhere else to look for these threats, so when as we will be lifting the measures we must take care that the virus doesn't surprise us. Those who start going back to work must respect the measures."

A graph showing the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Serbia since March 6 until April 20; Illustration: Nikola Jovanovic

We will be nearing the end of the epidemic when we exit week 8.

"Then the epidemic is nearing its end. From week 10 to week 12 we can expect no more virus. We will monitor for its presence even during warmer days."

(Telegraf.rs)